The present invention relates to rolls of single-use paper such as bathroom tissue and paper towels for away from home or private use.
In the field of disposable or tissue paper, there are basically two types of apparatus for dispensing the paper sheets and therefore two ways of presenting the paper: in folded and/or interleaved sheets, and in rolls.
As regards roll dispensers, the prior art includes centrally unwound dispensers in which the paper is extracted from the dispenser via the axis (or centre) of the roll. The dispenser in these cases generally has an opening or cone situated close to the axis of the roll. The unwinding axis can be horizontal, as disclosed for example in French Patent Application FR 2 873 562 filed in the applicant's name; another illustration is provided by application WO 2006/007256.
Centrally unwound rolls in which the unwinding axis is vertical are also known: application FR 2 761 252 is an example of this, as is application WO 97/21377.
Patent US 2005/0067519 is also known which describes a dispenser of this type containing a double-winding roll with staggering of the lines of pre-cuts.
One or other of the solutions will be envisaged depending on the use and/or the amount of space available for the dispenser.
As it comes out of such dispensers, the paper is generally crumpled in the dispensing cone.
Also known are the so-called tangentially unwound dispensers in which the rolls are unwound by free rotation about their axis, the paper being extracted through a slot or opening close to a generatrix of the roll.
The individual sheets or pieces making up the rolls may be connected to each other by pre-cuts. It is also known practice to have a tool built into the dispenser to cut the sheets when a length of one sheet has been unwound by the user.
In a simpler form, another type of dispenser allows the user to cut a piece himself, by, for example, a cutting blade positioned at the outlet of the paper.
Preferably, but not exclusively, the present invention relates to tangentially unwound rolls.
U.S. Pat. No. 459,516 discloses similar rolls in which the sheets include transverse cuts extending at regular intervals across virtually the entire width of the roll.
One or two joins per width of the roll connect the sheets and are offset across the width of the roll.
Document DE 203 14147 discloses a paper web comprising transverse cuts at regular intervals associated with at least one connecting region.
Also known is document DE 201 07189 which discloses a roll of bathroom tissue or the like, in which the sheet has, at regular intervals across its width, an alternation of small and large pre-cuts.
Also known, from Patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,627,117, is a roll of paper for covering toilet seats, in which one of the variants of the wound sheet has an alternation of continuous perforations and discontinuous perforations (the central region in this case having neither perforations nor cuts). On cutting such a sheet at the continuous perforations only, the user can thus cover one half of a toilet seat by folding the sheet against the seat using the so-called discontinuous perforations.
Another issue which arises in the away from home use of such rolls is the importance of being able to control the consumption of paper and limit it in order to reduce the cost of use.
Roll dispensers, whether of the central or tangential unwinding variety, have a problem of overconsumption in away from home use because the individual sheets (or pieces) are connected to each other by perforations and connecting regions, and it is up to the user to decide freely the number of sheets (or pieces) he extracts and cuts before use; and he generally extracts and uses a very great length of paper.
As mentioned above, one way of solving this problem is to feed out a predetermined limited length of paper. This necessitates a mechanical system more or less complex, and Patent EP 0 930 039 is an example of this type of dispenser.
Recently, electrical and/or electronic components have made it possible to control and limit the amount of paper unwound in laterally unwound dispensers: patents EP 1 230 886, EP 1 231 823 and EP 1 232 715 protect different aspects of recent electronic dispensers with electronic paper dispensing control.
These systems certainly solve the problem of how to control the amount dispensed but their drawback is that they are more or less sophisticated and therefore expensive and/or fragile in use, which can make them un-appropriate for away from home use.
Other (practical) uses require rolls of disposable paper to be unwound and cut in a controlled manner.
In all cases there exists a need for a simple, reliable system for dispensing initially wound sheets (or pieces), or rather for a roll which will perform this function itself.
Rolls in which the sheets are cut at regular intervals are also known: patent U.S. Pat. No. 2,053,786 is an example.